


As Bright As The Stars

by AstridRaine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bad Thoughts, Drarry, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Harry feels, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Pre Theodore Nott/Neville Longbottom, Sad at First, Some angst, awww, basically describing harry's life, but just ends up being a softie, cute stuff, draco trying to be tough, eighth year, happy birthday harry potter, like one of the rare fics where there are hetero ships, of course, shorter!Draco, taller!Harry, through his emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-28 04:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20057938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstridRaine/pseuds/AstridRaine
Summary: A little birthday fic for Harry Potter!**Snippets of the life of Harry Potter and how he came to finding love and family he so desires**





	As Bright As The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was quite late bc writer's block and lack of creativity can be bit of a bitch but I finally finished it and here y'all go! Hope you guys enjoy!  
Happy Birthday Harry Potter!! <3  
~Kit

Ever since he was little, Harry Potter knew family was to be cherished. It was just bad luck he didn’t have any. His aunt, uncle, and cousin made it clear who he was to them and he never had any friends.

Maybe it was this fact that turned him into who he was now or the fact that whenever he watched hopefully from the hallway as Dudley opened present after present on his birthday, he hoped that just maybe this year he might get something worthwhile after all.

Hoping that someone will actually be happy for him on the day he was born. 

But no such year came, and so he sat forlornly in his cupboard under the stairs on his birthday, hearing his supposed family laugh at the television.

That night long after his relatives have gone to bed, Harry snuck out and sat cross-legged in front of the large bayside window in the living room. He stared at his chubby toddler hands, scratched and bruised even then from the labor and peered through cracked lenses of his glasses at the large window overlooking the night sky and the rest of Privet Drive.

The stars glimmered and winked at him as if sharing a secret that only they knew. An ache began to spread across his chest and Harry palmed the window pane and bowed his head.

The ache shifted into the inevitable form of jealousy.  
***  
As he grew older, Harry Potter was a lonely kid, an enigma that all the other kids whispered about behind his back. He never got to experience what other kids told tales about. 

He never experienced the thrill of Halloween, the excitement and suspense of Christmas nor the happiness and warm feeling of care on his birthday. 

He wished he did though, but the now ten-year-old Potter knew just what his aunt and uncle would say about that. According to them, he was a freak with a freak scar taking part of freak occurrences (it wasn’t his fault he had ended up on the roof of his school! It has just happened!) so he kept it all to himself and started to believe it. Something was wrong with him, he didn’t deserve love, not when he was just a miserable freak wearing baggy clothes and doing abnormal things. Of course, he didn’t have any friends, who would even want to talk to him let alone be his friend?

And so he accepted it and moved on, yet on his tenth birthday, he couldn’t help but glance back out the window as a clock from far away chimes twelve times for midnight. The stars blinked and shined just as bright as it had five years ago. 

It must be a correlation, for the ache in his chest grew tighter, so very nearly tight that it seemed to squeeze his insides. Harry absentmindedly touched his chest, close to his collarbone on the left side. 

The stars were still playing that same old joke it seemed. 

The aching jealousy shifted into inexplicable sadness.   
  
***  
Harry Potter watched the sky outside with a blank expression. The bedside clock beside him showed just half-past eleven but the Chosen One paid no attention to that small detail.   
The stars outside seemed much duller than before. Although one stood out among its companions, bright and proud. Harry wondered if it was his godfather watching him from up above. 

He wished it was, but the hope had dimmed down, he knew that he should be angry with Dumbledore with what had happened during his fifth year but a part of him couldn't find it in him to care. The old man didn't even know what was going to happen, hell he didn't even know otherwise he would've grasped at the chance to save Sirius with all the might he could muster. 

That was another piece of family that he lost, thrown into the void of death, black and limitless. It was ironic really, all he ever wanted was a family but it seemed like even the gods themselves didn't want him to have that. 

The stars outside glistened and as the clock flicked to midnight, the now sixteen-year-old Harry Potter ignored the fact that he was one year older, he ignored that it was supposed to be a special day today, he ignored the clatter of plates downstairs that would most likely be either his aunt doing midnight cleaning (or stress cleaning, he couldn't really distinguish the difference between the two) or his cousin getting a late-night snack while studying (apparently he was failing some of his classes). 

He felt something that he had never considered feeling before. He wanted to leave, to let go, to be free. He wanted to be with his parents and his godfather. Who cared about him anymore other than just to get rid of Voldemort? Hedwig hooted indignantly as Harry slumped farther forward from where he sat in front of the small window in his room as if she could sense what he was feeling. 

"It's okay, girl," Harry murmured softly as he reached over and gently stroked a finger over the snowy owl's head, "I'm not going anywhere."

Hedwig hooted again before giving him a reproachful nip, the pain hardly stung now. 

Harry smiled sadly at his constant companion, he could only hope nothing ever happened to her. She was the only one who saw each and every part of him, good and bad. "How can I go when I've come this far anyway? Everyone's counting on me now."

As he gazed back up at the night sky, he imagined his mother and father's proud expressions as they smiled at him. He imagined Sirius winking at him conspiratorially as he smirked with pride evident in his gaze. 

"But are they going to be proud of me? After all, I did, or tried to do?" Harry wondered out loud. Hedwig dismissed the fact that her owner was talking to an empty room, this happened quite often. 

The ache in his chest turned into something much darker and significantly bleaker. He felt heavy all of a sudden and his head spun. 

The burning sadness washed away into overwhelming loneliness. 

***

"You're late," said the voice of a boy once-proud now quiet, yet even now his voice held a tone of annoyance and unamused.

"I know," panted the form of a more broader and controlled Savior. Although he had actually made it and killed Voldemort all the way, there were still quite a lot of things he was bound to learn after. 

One of them being, punctuality and appeasing his former rival and current love interest. 

"What was it this time? You're fan club stopping you again?" Sniffed the pale and less pointy face of Draco Malfoy. 

"Draco, they're not my fan club they're just-oh never mind, no it was Ron and Hermione making staying up late for homework. Then they went up to the boys' dormitories...both of them."

"I do not want to think about Weasley and Granger's escapades while we try to salvage our attempt at a first date, a date that you were _two hours _late to," although his words were waspish, his lips twitched up slightly. Harry's chest felt a tad bit lighter. 

"I'm sorry, I really am. Tomorrow, at the old bridge crossing into Hogsmeade, I promise I won't be late. Please Draco," he was at the point of begging, he knew, but right now practically every bone in his body knew that if he let Draco walk away tonight then it would be the worst regret ever.

Draco sighed as he thought it over and crossed his arms as he whisked past Harry, "I'll consider it, your punctuality is the worst just so you know Potter, so you might need someone more timely to help you with that." He eyed Harry, "someone with a lot of generosity."

Harry snorted. Draco raised an eyebrow, and Harry quickly coughed lightly to cover it up.

Draco turned away after another haughty sniff, and Harry watched the elegant form of the man his heart ached for, walk away from him. Sighing quietly, he was just berating himself for listening to Ron and Hermione and turning away when an impatient cough caught his attention. 

He turned back to meet the steel gray eyes of Draco staring at him with an annoyed expression.

"Well, don't we have a first date to rescue? I believe we do have to make up for lost time, mind you, our second one has to be even better or else I'm not letting you kiss me ever."

His eyes shone playfully and softened when he saw Harry gape at him. "Oh honestly, did you think this was it? If I was so upset about your lack of punctuality then I would have rejected you the moment you stepped into my private space. Now come on, I don't have all night."

Harry rejoiced silently as he hurried to catch up to Draco and when the blond awkwardly tried to nonchalantly hold his hand he could've squealed. Maybe his life was looking up after all. 

As they walked down the grounds of Hogwarts to the Lake, the stars above celebrated as well as they twinkled merrily. 

The ache, unknown to the two boys, lessened ever so slightly. 

The overpowering waters of loneliness seemed to breach ever so slightly as the shining ray of hope split the waves. 

***

"Happy Birthday, mate!" Roared Ron Weasley as he wrapped a tight arm around the lithe form of his fiancee. Hermione simply elbowed him in the stomach which made Ron double over. 

"Oi 'Mione! What was that for? Who needs wands when we have Hermione and her pointy elbows, am I right?"

Theodore Nott snickered from where he stood next to the dining table with his roommate Neville Longbottom, "I still have the bruise from where she elbowed my ribs last month," he moaned, clutching his abdomen and almost falling on top of Neville. 

"It's still there?" Neville asked worriedly.

"Oh just ignore him, Neville. Theo's such an attention whore that he'd say anything to get anyone's attention-" Blaise began boredly.

"-especially yours," Pansy finished with a wide smirk on her face at the deep red spreading across Neville's cheeks and Theo's glare aimed her way. 

"Blaise, how on earth did you end up with a witch like her as your wife?" Theo asked casually as he palmed a butter knife lying innocently on the counter, placed for the cake cutting. 

"Nott if you end up stabbing my wife, I'll kill you myself and dance on your grave," Blaise warned. Hermione nodded in agreement. 

"You can't hurt my shopping buddy, Nott," she said threateningly.

"Nev! She's gonna hurt me again with her Elbows of Doom," Theo yelped, hiding behind a bewildered Neville. His eyes lit up when he saw who had entered the room, "Potter, get your best friend under control, she's gonna go on a rampage."

"Oh for heaven's sake," sighed Hermione, pinching her nose.

"How the hell did you guys even stay quiet for five minutes in the same room?" Asked Harry. He stifled his laughter at Theo's look of panic, Hermione's look of exasperation and Pansy's smug-ass smirk. 

"Ask us how the hell we stayed friends for 4 years," muttered Ron and squeaked when Hermione pinched him sharply on his upper arm. 

Blaise snorted and Ron glared at him while rubbing his arm petulantly. 

"Alright, you all can't even give Harry a break on his birthday?" Asked the voice of Harry's recently turned fiance, Draco Malfoy as he appeared at the doorway with a large cake in hand. 

His scolding look was dismissed however at the prize sitting on his hands.

"Is that the cake?" Ron asked excitedly, "Harry hurry up mate and cut it already, I'm starved."

"That was _not _what you were saying an hour ago when I asked you to taste my soup," Hermione said. Ron paled.

"Well, I mean-'Mione, you gotta digest first...right?" He looked around the room for help. 

Blaise and Pansy gave him a look that clearly said _you're on your own for this one _and Theo's returning smirk was not helping his odds. But before the famous Granger rage could detonate, Harry quickly intervened. 

"Let's cut the cake!"

All in all, the party turned out excellent. After helpings of the delicious cake that Draco and Neville had made together, drinks were passed around. Ron had ended up going for seconds of the cake and only stopped at Hermione's annoyed and disapproving look. After that, it was all a blur, Harry remembered drinking quite a lot (though not as much as Ron and Blaise who ended up attempting to dance on top of the living room table but probably ended up giving poor Neville a heart attack) and to his surprise, Hermione ended up downing more glasses than Harry thought. 

"Wanna go up to the rooms?" Draco's hot breath washed over Harry's ear as he whispered in what he thought was a quiet voice. But there was no one around to hear anyway, except for Ron and Hermione who were making out heavily on the couch. Blaise and Pansy had already departed to a more peaceful area upstairs (Harry did not want to know what they were doing, although the loud noises heard from inside one of the guest rooms were enough of an answer) and Theo and Neville were nowhere to be seen. 

"Sure," Harry agreed after seeing the slight glassy look in his lover's eyes. It seemed like Draco had drunk just as much as he did, maybe more. He didn't want to be in the stuffy living room and see the full forms of Ron and Hermione anyway. 

They somehow made it upstairs and nearly tripped over something which turned out to be a pair of legs belonging to one Theodore Nott as he lay sprawled in the middle of the hallway with Neville flopped across his chest, both curled up against each other and breathing in sync. 

"I knew they had something going on," whispered Harry while he and Draco squished themselves against the wall to move past the sleeping pair without disturbing them. "I'm so gonna tell them tomorrow."

"Mind you it'd be much better if we tell them before they take Hermione's hangover potion," snickered Draco, "especially right when they least expect it, like when they feel like they're about to hurl. It wouldn't matter if they ruin the _luxurious_ carpet since it's Ron and Hermione's."

"You're such a sadist," Harry shook his head fondly at Draco's muffled laughter. Maybe it was the alcohol thrumming in his system or how his foggy mind kept reminding him of how beautiful Draco looked, especially when he was laughing. But Harry decided that thinking was definitely not an option right now. 

"Mmphf," Draco groaned as his lips were suddenly assaulted by Harry's. After a moment of shock, he wasted no time retaliating as they both moved their lips in perfect harmony while groping each other in whatever place they could reach. As Harry stumbled back, he felt a sharp jab at his lower back and felt hazily the shape of a doorknob. Not wanting to break the intense kiss he and Draco had gotten into, Harry tried to open the door while still snogging his fiance heavily. 

He moaned loudly when Draco nipped at his bottom lip and reached a hand under his shirt and soon after moaned again when the door finally gave way and swung open. Unbalanced, he tumbled over and pulled Draco down with him as they fell to the floor. 

For a while, the only sounds were the noises most likely made from the room Blaise and Pansy were occupying and the loud pulses of the bass they had put on before passing out drinks for the party. The two men on the ground stayed still right where they were in an effort to gather their bearings and figure out what the hell was going on. 

"Ugh, I feel too sloshed even for a round of sex," Draco complained so bluntly that Harry let out a surprised laugh. He had forgotten how brutally honest Draco got whenever he got drunk.

"Me too actually," Harry agreed as he stood up dizzily from the ground and held out a hand for Draco to take, "want to sleep instead? Seems like we stumbled into one of Ron and Hermione's guest bedrooms."

"I'm pretty sure Blaise and Pansy are using our designated room," Draco grumbled as he hauled himself up using Harry's hands and making his way blindly to the bed, "my certified silk shirt is in there."

"Oh, poor you," Harry shuddered as he flopped down beside Draco and made himself comfortable, "who knows what the hell they're doing to my work boot...I'll kill them if there is anything off with them."

"I'm definitely doing the murder here, Potter, you have too much of a hero complex to actually kill someone in cold blood, you'd probably crack if they beg for mercy...not that Blaise or Pansy would _ever _do that, trust me."

"I don't need to trust you, I already know," Harry remembered the countless times either Blaise or Pansy had annoyed him immensely and neither had apologized until Harry, himself, had cracked at last and talked to them again. _Slytherins, what are you gonna do _he had thought wearily. 

Draco yawned and tugged one of Harry's arms around his waist until Harry was basically spooning him from behind, "be quiet, Harry I'm trying to sleep."

"Goodnight then," Harry smiled fondly at the smaller blond pressed up to him, "and thanks for all this, by the way, this party was awesome."

"Oh it was nothing," Draco mumbled sleepily, "it's your birthday, you deserved it. Happy birthday, I love you, now shut up and let me sleep you great git."

"I love you too," Harry whispered affectionately as Draco snuggled closer to him. Although soon after their semi-drunk conversation, Draco's breath had evened out, Harry couldn't seem to fall asleep. He kept thinking back to how this all came to be. The nervous dates, and the awkward hand-holding. The stilted conversations and crackling tension. But then it had all changed once Blaise and Pansy (while holding hands) had shoved a very annoyed and grumpy Draco in front of Harry and demanded that they fix their 'stupid sexual tension before they all choke on it' before striding away. After that, it was soft kisses and tender words. Bringing each other from night terrors and pulling each other from bleak memories. 

But with every good, there was also bad. The harsh words thrown at one another and the burning anger in their eyes as they fought. But they also came back in the end, sometimes by friends or maybe just because each felt the other's heartache for a missing piece. And then makeup kisses and sex of course, but also the 'I love you's and gentle smiles mended each other's heart, made them whole again.

And Harry didn't mind, he and Draco's relationship was balanced and he wouldn't change a single damn thing about it. A twinkle outside caught his peripheral vision and he glanced to the slight right to see that the curtains covering the big window were opened just a crack. The stars outside the night sky gleamed brightly, much brighter than before and seemed to wink at him, but this time Harry didn't feel like he wasn't a part of an inside joke. 

The ache in his chest gave one last squeeze before retracting its merciless claws from him and letting go at last. He smiled at the stars shining bright outside and winked back. 

The waters of loneliness, the overwhelming dark tunnel of sadness, and the clawing jealousy all dissipated by the shining light at the end of that very same tunnel. Finally, the ray of hope blazed bright into something much significant. Happiness shone in the place of the darkness just as bright as the stars themselves, maybe even more. 


End file.
